


Upcycling

by Dolchang1



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Adora not getting the concept of personal boundaries quite yet, And Catra only knowing thanks to Perfuma, F/F, Hordak does something in this story for once, Hurt Adora (She-Ra), Hurt Catra (She-Ra), Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 11:54:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30021399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dolchang1/pseuds/Dolchang1
Summary: After a perfect storm of events gone wrong, Adora goes into a self-imposed exile. Catra searches for her, but will she find her in time?
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra), Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 23





	Upcycling

**Author's Note:**

> Did you know: I start a new fic idea every time I get stuck on another one. Which is why I have 8 ongoing fics and none of them are finished. But anyways I hope this wasn't done before

Adora had nightmares. Silly, really. It wasn't ones Catra or Mermista, or the other chipped people had about being helpless in their own body, hurting and sometimes killing their loved ones.

Nor did it involve Shadow Weaver restricting your every movement, making it hard to even breathe. Adora was never afraid of the shadows like Catra did, never awoke screaming, begging for 'her' to stop. Adora knew too well who she was, and wished she would have done more.

Adora's nightmares didn't involve anything dramatic- her nightmares didn't even have her hurt in any way. But it still made her afraid, for some reason. Those nightmares were not going to be real, and everything was, and was going to be, okay.

…right? 

  
  
  


_ “You and Adora need to be less dependent on each other,” _

Catra remembered Perfuma’s advice on the last session between them. At first she was skeptical, paranoid, even. Was Perfuma planning something? Was she not satisfied with Scorpia? But Perfuma assured her that though Adora was attractive, she was not going to take her away- rather, Catra needed to find value in herself away from Adora, to help mitigate her inferiority complex which hasn’t gone away after all these years.

And considering the last time it acted up, Catra decided it would be good to get rid of it once and for all. But she would have to tell her at an appropriate time in an appropriate manner, since the dependency was mutual. At least according to Perfuma. 

Personally, Catra was worried; what if this gave Adora a reason to leave her, since she was now independent enough? She knew that if she was Adora, she would have left her already. But that stupid, selfless girl didn’t seem to know better, sticking with Catra for better or for worse. But Perfuma assured her again with her sincere, disarming smile, and Catra had to comply.

  
  
  


Adora wanted to help, needed to help. She was quite free ever since the expedition that restored magic to the rest of the universe. First, she wasn’t called to the restoration of Elberon. Or Thaymor. Or Alwyn. Then she found out Catra was responsible for overseeing the restoration projects while Adora just… existed. So when Adora came to Glimmer and Bow, and asked why she wasn’t made aware, they replied somewhere along the lines of “We thought you should rest, and we didn’t think we needed you to fix the villages.”

Emphasis on the second part. They didn’t need her anymore.

Adora tried to reassure herself that not being needed was not necessarily a bad thing, and her friends loved her nonetheless. And besides, she still had Catra with her even  _ if  _ her friends didn’t want her anymore. Catra, who stayed by her side even when she was about to die, confessing her love and Adora confessing back. Then… 

_ “Adora, we need to be less dependent on each other.” _

What did she mean? They were supposed to depend on each other. Together against the world.

_ “Perfuma says it’s not healthy for us, and we need to grow out of it. Adora, I don’t-” _

Excuses. 

_ “Adora, wait! Don’t run off-” _

No place for her anymore. But then, that was to be expected. Why would someone keep a dirty cloth after it could clean no more? And Catra, keep an useless childhood friend that didn’t protect her in any way, when there were plenty of better, healthier people? Like Scorpia.

No place for her anymore. Adora had to think. She was a First One, brought to this world for a sole purpose. She thought maybe it could be friendship, maybe love, but it was apparent that it was war; and she was the Sword that wanted so badly to be the Ploughshare. But then a random location crossed her mind, where the First Ones dumped their First Ones trash.

Adora chuckled at the irony. Despite everything, she never got a choice. Her destiny was chosen from the day she was born, taken to Etheria, taken up the Sword… just because she was a First One. And now, she was going to stay with the other First Ones’ tools that also outlived their usefulness. And she was heading there on Darla, a ship made by none other than the First Ones.

Her new home was not welcoming, as was normal. She sent Darla on autopilot back to Bright Moon, while Adora surveyed the surroundings. She had to be careful to not get noticed by Hordak or Entrapta, who were fixing up the island. Adora wanted the island to stay the way it was, so people would know what the First Ones were really about, but Hordak apparently insisted on fixing it. And Entrapta followed him. But the process was going to be very slow, and Adora was sure the signal would get her before she would get spotted by Entrapta and Hordak.

It felt unfair, really- a despot like Hordak, after ruining or downright ending countless lives, started over with a new purpose, just like that. While Adora, like most of his other products, was still stuck in the war. But a lot of things were not fair, and if she was talking about being on the short end of the stick, Catra was the one who really got to experience the unjustness.

But anyways, here she was and here she would spend the rest of her days...

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably going to be like 3 chapters tops idk  
> anyways its gonna be short and stuff. If you're curious on the definition of the chinese characters in the first chapter, it means "Cooking the Hounds after the Rabbit Hunt", which basically just means getting rid of a tool after it outlived its use. Now don't call me racist or anything like that, it's just a common expression where I live and we don't really mean we eat dogs when we say that phrase.


End file.
